It’s been an exciting night, camera fans! The internet has been alight with the heat of rampant flame wars as enthusiasts from each side hurled insults at the other. In the blue corner we have Canon. After three years of waiting, they have finally entered the arena and created the Digital Cinema camera everyone knew they could – the C300.

In the red corner… we have RED. They also chose yesterday to release the specs and open up pre-orders on the fabled Red Scarlet.

And then, predictably, the mud-slinging began. The Red Scarlet is half the price of the Canon C300, the C300 is half the weight. The Scarlet operates at a higher resolution and variable frame rates, the C300 is predicted to have better low light performance and more stable firmware. It was a forum-dweller’s dream.

I’m a firm believer in the right camera for the right job. The Canon DSLRs like the 5D and 7D might not be the most usable cameras, but they help produce a lovely image for our more budget conscious projects so we have them in-house.

The larger budget projects move us into hire territory, and that’s where these new cameras will sit for us alongside options like the Arri Alexa, Red Epic and Sony F3.

Their differences set each camera apart from its neighbour, and choice can only ever be a good thing for production companies and cinematographers. So let’s put the flying faeces down and tell some good stories with our shiny new tools.

Xray9films

The red is frequently quoted as being half the price of the canon but the 9750 price tag is not a useable camera. In fact, the 15k shooting package is barely useable with a couple of batteries that last about half an hour each and a 64gb ssd drive that lasts 10 minutes. By the time you’ve added in four more ssds (to give you the running time of about 1x cf card) at a further cost of 3450, then added a baseplate kit, and a viewfinder, the red scarlet x will be at least the same cost, if not more than the canon. Then you have the post workflow, transfer times and storage of a collossal amount of data, not to mention reds infamous reliability issues.
In true red style, the advertising tells only half the story.

Xray9films

The red is frequently quoted as being half the price of the canon but the 9750 price tag is not a useable camera. In fact, the 15k shooting package is barely useable with a couple of batteries that last about half an hour each and a 64gb ssd drive that lasts 10 minutes. By the time you’ve added in four more ssds (to give you the running time of about 1x cf card) at a further cost of 3450, then added a baseplate kit, and a viewfinder, the red scarlet x will be at least the same cost, if not more than the canon. Then you have the post workflow, transfer times and storage of a collossal amount of data, not to mention reds infamous reliability issues.
In true red style, the advertising tells only half the story.

Xray9films

The red is frequently quoted as being half the price of the canon but the 9750 price tag is not a useable camera. In fact, the 15k shooting package is barely useable with a couple of batteries that last about half an hour each and a 64gb ssd drive that lasts 10 minutes. By the time you’ve added in four more ssds (to give you the running time of about 1x cf card) at a further cost of 3450, then added a baseplate kit, and a viewfinder, the red scarlet x will be at least the same cost, if not more than the canon. Then you have the post workflow, transfer times and storage of a collossal amount of data, not to mention reds infamous reliability issues.
In true red style, the advertising tells only half the story.

Xray9films

The red is frequently quoted as being half the price of the canon but the 9750 price tag is not a useable camera. In fact, the 15k shooting package is barely useable with a couple of batteries that last about half an hour each and a 64gb ssd drive that lasts 10 minutes. By the time you’ve added in four more ssds (to give you the running time of about 1x cf card) at a further cost of 3450, then added a baseplate kit, and a viewfinder, the red scarlet x will be at least the same cost, if not more than the canon. Then you have the post workflow, transfer times and storage of a collossal amount of data, not to mention reds infamous reliability issues.
In true red style, the advertising tells only half the story.

Craig

You are of course correct, but it is the list price that is being argued over hence its inclusion in this post which is more about the fallout and the arguments than the cameras themselves. My perspective is that none of it matters because there is no single camera for any given situation – and the more competition in the market place the better it us for production.

Craig

You are of course correct, but it is the list price that is being argued over hence its inclusion in this post which is more about the fallout and the arguments than the cameras themselves. My perspective is that none of it matters because there is no single camera for any given situation – and the more competition in the market place the better it us for production.